Dec 05 2008
It’s time to start a Healthy life
How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you’ll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don’t feel like exercising?
While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn’t mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness — and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.
In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.
The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn’t have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.
I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.
Here’s a sample exercise program that may work for you:
* Warm Up — seven to eight minutes of light aerobic activity intended to increase blood flow and lubricate and warm-up your tendons and joints.
* Resistance Training — Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.
* Aerobic Exercise — Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.
* Stretching — Wrap up your exercise session by stretching, breathing deeply, relaxing and meditating.
When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.
* From one to eight weeks — Feel better and have more energy.
* From two to six months — Lose size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.
* After six months — Start losing weight quite rapidly.
Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don’t stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,’ says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:
* Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day
* Make sure every meal is balanced — incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits
* Limit your fat intake to only what’s necessary for adequate flavor
* Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day
* I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
I suppose that’s all I can think of for now. I should extend my thanks to a doctor friend of mine. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to write this article, or keep my sanity.
Enjoy life, we all deserve it.
The Benefits of Good Health
There is nothing quite like enjoying the benefits of good health. A good fitness program, along with regular sound sleep and good nutrition will ensure you get more out of life. You will feel stronger and happier and be able to do more activities no matter what age you might be.
Fitness will reduce the effects of aging and allow you to participate in sports and recreation that might not be possible for someone with lower levels of fitness.
Having greater levels of fitness will reduce the incidence of injury and also reduce the chances of illness.
There are so many benefits that can affect all aspects of your life that maintaining your fitness is essential.
Even if you are unfortunate enough to suffer some form of injury or illness, your fitness levels will help you to recover faster and get back to full health.
The older you get the more important it is to keep your fitness levels up as we become inclined as we get older to reduce our physical activity.
A fit person will always live longer if all else is equal and apart from that, they will get more enjoyment out of life as everything will be all the easier to do.
Good health is something that we should all be investing in. The investment you make in your health will pay dividends later in life that no amount of money can achieve.
It is particularly important as we grow older that we have the strength to maintain our balance and remain as independent as possible for as long as we can.
One walk two or three times a week might not seem like a lot now but accumulating over the years it will help to strengthen your bones and build a healthier and stronger heart and better lungs.
Exercise Anytime and Anywhere
There is no excuse for not exercising. An exercise can be as simple as some freestanding squats with no weight done in your office during working hours. It only takes a few minutes to do the squats but this can be done a few times a day and it will stimulate blood flow and increase your heart rate.
You can also get on the floor and do pushups that will only take a few minutes, but over time will add to your upper body strength. Various yoga exercises, such as the standing poses can be performed almost anywhere and this will add to your leg strength, posture and balance.
Everyone, no matter how busy they might claim to be, has the time to spare a few minutes throughout the day to do these exercises. If you believe that you don’t have this much time then there is something seriously wrong with the way that you are running your life.
Stretching is something that can also be done almost anywhere, even while you are sitting at your desk. You can perform these simple exercises while watching television and they are unlikely to disturb anyone else in the room.
It can become quite a fun challenge to find different exercises that you can do throughout the day while at work. All these exercises will add to a healthier body and help to relieve some of the stress of work.
Get other workmates to join in and for fun challenge them to do more exercises or hold poses for longer than you. Walk around your workplace at lunchtime and before you start work.
Take a few extra minutes to do some exercise before leaving for home at night. There are many opportunities throughout the day where you can give your health a boost. Seize all the chances you can to improve your fitness and you will reap the rewards long after you retire.
